First World War Archives

Featured local business - Clubtek

Forest

SE23

Hill

I was already a regular visitor to Clubtek’s DJ shop when it was in Penge, but now they're even handier in Stanstead Road, just a few doors down from Shannon’s Garden Centre - another old favourite. It’s by no means just for DJs and bands...

Guided Walk – Rounding off the Great War – Sunday 15th September 2pm-3.30pm

Sep

2019

FOBLC historian Peter Mealing will be leading this guided walk (assisted by Mick Martin and Mike Guilfoyle) bringing together the strands of the First World War reflected in the memorials to some of those who fought and perished in the conflict, military and civilian, in the two Cemeteries as well as looking at its profound ...

Major Charles Edward Fysh (1894-1918)

Aug

2018

Major Charles Edward Fysh (1894-1918)Located alongside one of the inner pathways in Ladywell cemetery lies the headstone (see photograph below) on which the name of Major Charles Edward Fysh is inscribed with those of his parents. He was with British troops taking part in Marshal Foch’s large scale and highly successful counter offensive of the ...

Messages, Medals, and Memorials – public art exhibition in Ladywell Cemetery Chapel Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th September 11am – 4pm

Aug

2018

Messages, Medals, and Memorials – a public art exhibition which will be in the Chapel of the Ladywell Cemetery on Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th September 11am – 4pm, commemorates the contribution of Colonial troops and the Labour Corps to the war effort in the First World War. Though never fully acknowledged, Europe's Great War ...

A Tribute to Second Lieutenant Hugh Gordon Langton- killed at Passchendale October 25th 1917

Nov

2017

One of many iconic images of the Passchendaele battlefield in 1917Passendaele (Passendal) is a small village five miles north-east of Ypres in Belgium and is the name by which the final stages of the Third Battle of Ypres are better known. Along with the Somme, it has come to symbolise the Great War for many. ...

Frederick Innes OBE (1864-1921): Silvertown Explosion 1917

Jan

2017

Contemporary newspaper illustration of the Silvertown explosionClose to the Ivy Road pathway in Ladywell cemetery enveloped in its chitinous grassy embrace lies the Innes family grave of Frederick Innes, who died aged 57 years on the 14th December 1921. Grandfather to FOBLC stalwart Ron Innes, Frederick was intimately connected to the biggest explosion ever to ...

The Somme Revisited

May

2016

On Monday 25th April I accompanied three of my FOBLC colleagues Geoffrey Thurley (the Chair), Mick Martin and Peter Mealing (the driver) across the channel, following the route that General De Gaulle once called the 'fatal avenue', the sweep of low lying country in Northern France heading towards the much visited Somme battlefield (the Somme is the name ...

Socialist Opposition to World War I – exhibition and talk in Blackheath

Apr

2016

Interesting event coming up next week:'St George's Church in Westcombe Park is pleased to host a showing of a free educational exhibit entitled "Socialist Opposition to World War I". The exhibit runs all day on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 April in the nave of the church, located on Glenluce Road in Blackheath, SE3 7RZ. ...

THE DAY TSAR NICHOLAS II MET BROCKLEY AVIATOR

Jan

2016

Russian aviator and inventor Captain Sergei Alexandrovich Oulianine (aka Ulyanin) 1871 -1921Part hidden off the pathway heading towards the near seamless boundary between Ladywell and Brockley cemeteries, topped by a broken cruciform headstone, lies the final resting place of the distinguished Russian aviator and inventor Captain Sergei Alexandrovich Oulianine (aka Ulyanin) 1871-1921. He lies buried ...

Welcome To Hell: The battle for Lone Pine

Aug

2015

PRIVATE HAROLD GREENAWAY AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY KILLED IN ACTION7th AUGUST 1915 GALLIPOLIOn the pathway heading away from the Ladywell Chapel just before the wall of remembrance (Heroes Corner) lies the family grave of Private Harold John Greenaway who was killed in action on Saturday 7th August during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Born in Catford in 1893, Harold ...

1915 London Tram Strike in New Cross

Jun

2015

A hundred years ago this week, tram workers in London were sacked for going on strike and sent off to war. The London tram strike was prompted by the rising cost of living - the 7,000 strikers demanded a 'war bonus'. The response of the employer, London County Council (LCC), was to sack all men ...